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History of Official Downball
'''Early Days ' '''On September 23rd 2011 Jack Love, Alan "Blender" Sutherland, William Thomas and Casey Harrison started the first version of downball using a high bonce ball borrowed off Austin Wright who later joined in. The sport was first played in an area called "the court" and has been played their since. An order was used in who had to hit the ball and the sport quickly grew. Ryan "Ryano" Nedeljkovic and a host of minor players were next to join in. The rules were very simple compared to what they would evolve into. At this point in time little was known about just how big downball would become. ' '''Frustrating Times ' '''As more people joined in the order became to difficult for players to remember fights would often breakout. Some players if they knew they weren't going to get the ball they would just leave it and say they forgot the order. Players would also get frustrated because players would deliberately set the ball up so someone could easily get the next person out. Another frustrating problem was the high amount of court invaders and due to Official Downball's lack of money they couldn't higher security officers. For weeks the sport would struggle until a solution was brought up. ' 'Proximity rule ' ' '''The new rule which stated "that the closest has to hit the ball", solved many issues but created some more with Blocking coming into the sport. With the new rule it was often hard to tell who was out if nobody went for the ball or multiple people went for the ball as a result it benefited some players, especially those that didn't weren't that weren't that skilled as it would mean that they could avoid having to return the ball. The new rule also brought positioning into the game. Each player had their own strategy of where they were going to stand. James Widows and a new bunch of players would now come into the sport. When these minor players played they lowered the standard of downball and Official Downball co-founder Jack would often say "They just waste our time". ' 'Going Global' ' '''With the sport now dominating in the local area the sports advertising campaign now started. Combined with the laws being written up and the Official Downball constitution soon to be created its popularity grew substantially. Sometimes hundreds would now come to watch downball. Heaps of people would cram into the small playing area to view some of the great players play like: Alan "Blender" Sutherland with his extreme craftiness, "The Great" Jack Love and his "behind the pole shots", Casey Harrison with his real "Whatever It Takes" attitude and Austin Wright with his well kown Remba shots. With Official Downball's youtube advertising campaign spearheaded by downballers Casey Harrison and Jack Love the game has now been viewed in over 50 countries around the world and will soon take off and become the number 1 sport in many countries of the world. ' '''Official Downball Player Memberships ' '''In mid 2013 Official Downball launched it's player memberships. At the time of writing four players' ads have been posted on YouTube this include Alan, Casey, Ryan and Will. Many people doubted that people would become members of players but they have since been proven to be wrong' ' 'Resurgence'' In late 2016/ early 2017 a renewed push sparked interest in the game leading to the introduction of Night Downball and the opening of the Mount Waverley court